


Not All Exits

by DisharmonicVoices



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Griffin can fight me, I cry everytime I write about Johann, I'm giving Johann the ending he deserved, M/M, Mutual Pining, Peaceful Death, he deserves so much more, let johann live peacefully with his husband
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 02:16:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,452
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17194604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DisharmonicVoices/pseuds/DisharmonicVoices
Summary: Not all exits are made equal. . .The Raven Queen had feelings about the way in which Johann's exit was forced, and for the first time in a long time felt pity for a dead soul. In her graciousness, she sent Johann back to where she felt he belonged.





	Not All Exits

The Raven Queen looked fondly at the soul she caressed gently in her hands, the orb of shining white light slowly taking form in her tender caress. She watched, cupping her hands as the orb took its shape, the form of a slender half-elf man sitting now in her palms. The soul, now having his consciousness returned to him looked up at the face of the goddess of death, and trembled in her hands. His body felt tight, and were he breathing before he would not be now, and though no tears came he could feel their warm sting in his eyes. The goddess, somehow, looked sad too, though her expression never changed. Slowly she sat the soul of Johann on the ground, and there he sat as she waved her hand in front of her, creating a type of one-way mirror into the material plane. He saw himself, lying in a shallow pool of water that rippled as footsteps neared his body. He heard an awful pained scream as Avi dropped to his knees and took his body in a tight embrace. He could feel the anguish of his lover as he mourned his loss, and it shook his soul to its very core. He reached a hand weakly out, a feeling similar to tightness in the throat manifesting as he saw the hand of Magnus, kneeling now beside Avi, in a vain attempt to ease his pain. The soul of Johann covered his face, not bearing able to watch the scene any longer, though the sounds of Avi’s wailing and crying out his name reverberated throughout the chamber. 

The Raven Queen felt something she had not felt for any dead soul in a long time, she felt pity for this man. Her heart ached as she lifted the soul lovingly back into her arms, holding it close to her feathered cloak. She watched on as Avi made a futile attempt to revive Johann, beating on his chest more than anything, and she watched as Magnus grabbed at Avi’s hands and tore them away from the cooling body of the bard. She looked at the soul who was trembling her hands, and she looked back up to the vision of the current happenings. 

“Johann.” Her voice was steady and smooth, and hearing it snapped Johann back into his reality. “I feel your exit of this world was not justified, and as such, I shall return you. Remember my kindness.” Johann watched her, her mouth unmoving as it was more like her words were being spoken directly from her mind to his. He nodded his head slowly, and then quickly, and then his vision went white.

Johann took a sharp breath, which walked him directly into a coughing fit, blood spitting from his lips onto the floor and the front of his shirt. He was wet all over from Fisher’s tank, but he felt warm arms grab him in a tight embrace. His eyes remained screwed, pain from two deep gashes in his stomach and chest pulsed throughout his body. He heard Avi, sobbing and hardly able to speak but trying his best to. He felt another pair of arms take them both into a big hug, and the warmth of the other body helped ease him slightly. He heard Magnus’s voice speak softly, or was he speaking normally and Johann was fading out? He couldn’t tell, but the words were there enough he could understand them just before his consciousness left him again.

“We have to get him to the med bay,  _ now _ .”

When Johann stirred again, he felt warmth around his right hand, and his senses flowed back into him he realized someone was holding his hand with both of theirs. 

“Johann?” It was Avi. A smile flicked onto his face before his eyes opened, and he looked over to see his lover, battle wounded but smiling and sitting next to him. “Johann, oh god I thought I lost you!” Avi hugged him again, and Johann hissed as his arms grazed over his chest, and the larger man pulled away quickly. “Shit!” He swore quietly as he felt Johann squeeze his hand tightly. “Sorry, I forgot. You had to get stitches, the doctor said he, he didn’t know how you were still alive.”

Johann looked at his lover as his hair fell over his left eyes. “I, Avi I, I  _ did _ die. I was dead for, I don’t even know how long. When I woke up I was in this, this whitespace and this woman was there, she was, I think she was the death goddess, Avi. And she showed me, you. I saw me, and I saw you mourning and holding me and and, I felt, I can’t even, and she told me, she said, something about, my exit wasn’t justified? And she, she sent me back. She, sent my soul back.” 

Avi was listening intently, trying to make sense of what Johann was telling him and it was all so fast he could hardly speak up. He was running his thumb over Johann’s cheek, and he opened his mouth to speak but before any sound could come out the door to Johann’s room burst open, and standing in the doorway was a man. Johann had seen him before on the moonbase once, he was talking with Taako, and though that was the extent to any real knowledge he may have about this man, something in his mind told him this man was known as the grim reaper, and he could feel his heart lurch into his throat.

“I can’t believe it.” The man in the doorway looked just as dumbfounded as Johann did terrified. His cockney accent dropped, and he spoke again. “I actually can’t believe she did this.”

Avi looked at the man, looked at his boyfriend, looked at how scared his boyfriend looked, and stood up quickly, asserting himself between the two.

“I, I don’t know who you are, pal, but you need to leave!”

The man blinked, and then raised up his hands, and he chuckled. “Oh, no no! You misunderstand me.” The man walked to the side so he could make eye contact with Johann. “I work for the Raven Queen. I just, when she told me what had happened I had to see for myself. She has never sent a dead soul back to live on the material plane so I just, it’s incredible, truly incredible. My name is Kravitz.”

Johann looked at the man, and looked at Avi, and looked back at the man. “Why did she, send me back?”

Kravitz rubbed the back of his neck and let out a sigh. “I, I can’t answer that. I don’t even know. I mean, I know she heard the song and everything because I heard it, but, I don’t know.”

Avi returned to Johann’s side again, an Johann quickly took his hand again. “She said, she said something about-” Kravitz held up a hand to stop him. 

“It’s nothing I need to hear. Like I said, she’s never done this before, so I don;t know why she sent you back. But, if I’m honest, I’m glad she did. Get your rest, people don’t typically do well after, you know, being dead for nearly an hour.” Kravitz turned on his heels, and walked out of the room, leaving Avi and Johann alone in the silence of the hospital.

“I don’t understand  _ anything _ of what just happened,” Avi spoke, breaking the silence after a few minutes of letting t stir. “All I know is that you’re alive, and that’s all I could really ask for.”

Two months later Johann is sitting at a desk, happy to finally be out of the hospital and working on a composition he’d been sitting on for the past month, since Avi wouldn’t bring him any sheet music while he was recovering. He dipped his quill in the ink well and began furiously marking down notes on a staff, and he would switch to a different sheet for the same song to be accompanied by another instrument and write it’s harmony. He wrote notes down until his hand was sore, and even after that. For a while, Avi stood in the doorway watching him work. After a while he stepped into the room, not that Johann would notice the creaking floorboard or be alerted to his presence. He waited until Avi was going to re-wet his quill, and then he spoke.

“You know,” Johann jumped, hearing his voice, and dropped his feathered quill. Avi bent down and picked it up for him. “The doctor said you shouldn’t over exert yourself.”

Johann huffed and pushed his hair out of his face, taking his quill back and dipping it in the inkwell. “I’m not, I just, I’ve had this song in my head for a month and i need to write it now and it needs to be perfect.”

Avi scanned the sheet music and hummed softly. “Mmm, you don’t usually write in a minor key.” He noted. “What’s that all about?”

“That’s, its, I’m writing this for  _ her _ . I have to thank her the only way I really know how, with music.” Avi knew exactly who he was talking about, and pressed a kiss to the side of his head. 

“Okay, fine. Do you need anything? You want me to make some tea?” Johann thought for a second, then shook his head. 

“No, no I can’t risk spilling anything. This song has to be perfect for her.” Avi rubbed his back and turned his head gently away from his desk to get a kiss, and then pulled away with a smile. 

“Okay, I’ll let you work, but I want you to take a break and come eat in a few hours, okay?”

Johann nodded his head in agreement, going right back to writing the music. “Yeah, okay.”

“Johann?” Avi asked softly, hand lingering on his shoulder. 

“Yeah, Avi? What is it?” Johann peaked at him over his shoulder, but didn’t look up fully from his work. 

“I love you.”

Johann’s cheeks flushed a deep red, and he cleared his throat, looking up to his lover and kissing him gently. “I love you too, Avi.”

Avi left his little office space and shut the door softly with a click. Johann had been asking Kravitz all kinds of questions about the Raven Queen, almost to the point Avi almost felt sorry for him. But he was thankful, deep down in his soul that she brought Johann back, and he recently asked Kravitz to pass his thanks to her. Lucretia had been kind enough to find a home for just the two of them, somewhere quiet and peaceful where they could live together in their own harmony. They were located a few miles outside of Neverwinter, they had two horses and a wagon, their small two bedroom cabin sitting upon a hill, and in all honesty that’s more than they needed to be happy. Avi sat down on a couch, watching the blue sky outside turn into deep shades of pink and orange and red, and then fade into a swirling mix of blue an black with stars dotting the night sky. He rested his head on the couch, and exhaled deeply as he heard Johann scribbling notes in the other room, and the sound of etching accompanied by a chorus of crickets and he occasional owl lulled him into sleep. When Johann finally left his office, ink blotched on his hands, he saw Avi curled up on the couch and with a content smile wiggled his way into his strong, comforting arms. His writing was finished, and all he had left to do was learn how to play four different instruments at the same time. As he settled himself in Avi’s arms and closed his eyes, he breathed a contented sigh, thanking the Raven Queen with his final conscious thought for the day for allowing him the life he would never have gotten to had, and thanked her for her kindness. Somewhere in his heart he knew that she knew how gracious he was for her graciousness, but that didn’t stop hi from offering her thanks every single night, morning, and minute of his gifted life.

Johann lived for many, many years after the day of Story and Song, he was at Magnus’s bedside when he passed, and again at Avi’s when he had fallen sick and not recovered. But neither of them were sad on that day, they both knew what was to come. Avi passed into the astral plane with ease and comfort in the knowledge he wouldn’t be away from Johann for too long. And when Johann turned 106, he felt light fading from his body, and as he lay in the cabin that had served as his home for the past 80 or so years, knowing this is where he would take his final few breaths, he smiled. He smiled as he met Kravitz, and he smiled as he entered again into the whitespace, his soul taking form in front of the Raven Queen, and he bowed deeply to her. She smiled, and picked him up in her hands, her embrace being just as gentle as he had remembered. 

“Johann, I am proud of the life you lived, and I am more glad I could return to you the gift of life. You are truly the greatest musician I have ever heard, and I have heard the song you spent years refining and perfecting, and so this I ask, will you join the ranks of my bounty hunters?” He watched as she motioned to Kravitz, who was joined now by Lup and Barry, the former waving at him from her place on the ground. Johann looked at the goddess, and shook his head slowly.

“I, I’m honored, I really am but, but I have to, I can’t.”

She moved her hand back down, setting Johann on his feet. “There is no need to explain yourself. Besides, I expected you to decline my offer. After all, he’s been waiting for you.” She waved her hand, and standing in front of Johann, was Avi. The two smiled, and Avi nearly tackled Johann with a big bear hug, squeezing him tightly. The Raven Queen smiled down at the two, and waved her hand again, taking them safely to the pool of souls where they appeared again in the water, two glowing white orbs swirling around each other. More spirit orbs came to greet them, and each resonated inside of Johann, his friends, family he hadn’t seen in decades, were all here, waiting for him to finally return to his eternal home.

**Author's Note:**

> The Raven Queen, looking at Johann's soul: This bitch full of Potential!  
> The Raven Queen, sending Johann's soul back into his body: YEET


End file.
